FF14 player count reached the lowest point in 4 years. We lost 75% of the playerbase.

[Kes13a]

Yeah god forbid people want more people to play with in an MMORPG.

except.... thats not entirely true. there have been many threads over the years about people wanting more solo content. why? because they dont want to play with others. thats part of the reason we are in the state we are in. Trusts didnt just spin themselves out of the aether. they were asked for because of the "trauma" of playing with others, plain and simple. they KNOW they signed up for an MMORPG... but dont really want to play it as one.

[Clockworks]

except.... thats not entirely true. there have been many threads over the years about people wanting more solo content. why? because they dont want to play with others. thats part of the reason we are in the state we are in. Trusts didnt just spin themselves out of the aether. they were asked for because of the "trauma" of playing with others, plain and simple. they KNOW they signed up for an MMORPG... but dont really want to play it as one.

Then perhaps if people are only able to play solo in an MMORPG they would be better off in different types of games, they shouldnt be catered to in a multiplayer game. I get what you mean, but FFXIV catering to solo players and encouraging them to keep playing solo in a multiplayer game was and still is a mistake.

[Kes13a]

Then perhaps if people are only able to play solo in an MMORPG they would be better off in different types of games, they shouldnt be catered to in a multiplayer game. I get what you mean, but FFXIV catering to solo players and encouraging them to keep playing solo in a multiplayer game was and still is a mistake.

I completely agree. except that SE tries to cater to everyone.. and really pleases no one... well, except for the corporate koolaid drinkers

[Wasselin]

Yeah god forbid people want more people to play with in an MMORPG.

More isn't always better. As more and more players stream into the game some of the culture of a close-knit community is lost. More people means more anonymity, which can lead to more toxic behavior. More players can also lead to server strain, as we have seen. If Square meets the demand with more servers and more customer service reps, that also adds to their overhead.

I'm not saying a large playerbase is bad, and certainly it can lead to more people to play with but it isn't wholly good either. And the implicit argument that many seem to have that more players equals more money for SquareEnix which would result in a better game isn't true either - they don't have to reinvest that money into the game, and more players has an increased cost as well.

[TaleraRistain]

The "majority of players doesnt use steam" argument makes no sense, that's exactly how you make statistics. You use a sample, except if you have evidence that players on other platforms play the game differently, if that is the case, feel free to prove me wrong.

You have a biased sample. You're trying to make assumptions about the entire playerbase but only look at numbers for one segment of the player base. If you wanted a truly unbiased sample, you would need a sample of players from each available platform.

What you guys are doing is if I said I interviewed 1000 people in New York and they all agreed on X, but I only talked to people who lived in one specific area.

[Supersnow845]

You have a biased sample. You're trying to make assumptions about the entire playerbase but only look at numbers for one segment of the player base. If you wanted a truly unbiased sample, you would need a sample of players from each available platform.

What you guys are doing is if I said I interviewed 1000 people in New York and they all agreed on X, but I only talked to people who lived in one specific area.

What is it about steam players that you believe is more or less likely to act significantly different to the rest of the playerbase

It’s more likely interviewing 1000 people for x then dismissing that as a biased sample because the 1000 people are far more likely to have a living grandma than grandpa but without providing a reason as to why the sample being biased on the grandma/grandpa front makes it biased on x

[TaleraRistain]

What is it about steam players that you believe is more or less likely to act significantly different to the rest of the playerbase

It’s more likely interviewing 1000 people for x then dismissing that as a biased sample because the 1000 people are far more likely to have a living grandma than grandpa but without providing a reason as to why the sample being biased on the grandma/grandpa front makes it biased on x

We know the Japanese player base is predominantly console, for one. The console numbers could be completely different because of regional behaviors. All that can really be assessed from looking at Steam numbers are the behaviors of those who use the Steam platform. And that has gone down after they started making us tie our accounts to our Steam accounts. So it's an even smaller amount of players to base behavior for the entire player base on now. Not to mention XIV is on XBox, so you have two consoles adding to those numbers.

[Clockworks]

You have a biased sample. You're trying to make assumptions about the entire playerbase but only look at numbers for one segment of the player base. If you wanted a truly unbiased sample, you would need a sample of players from each available platform.

What you guys are doing is if I said I interviewed 1000 people in New York and they all agreed on X, but I only talked to people who lived in one specific area.

Yeah because its a very common fact that steam players are different types of human beings than console players or standalone players. (/s)

Please explain to me how console players or standalone players would be any more different than steam players ? I'll wait for your response.

[LilaIronman]

People love to complain about player numbers when it suits them to bolster their own argument but really what difference does it make if there are 1 million or 2 million or 500,000 people playing the game? Does that make the game more fun for your personally to know that there are 1.9mil other people player over only 499,999 thousand?

The number matters for the people at square tasked with making money, but doesn't really matter to players unless it drops to the threshold where the game isn't profitable at all.

Hmmge well low player numbers could have impact on daylie life you know, if you spread 500k across all data centers and servers, theres not much left, Queues will pop slower, cities will start looking less and less alive, Dynamis kinda scenario just use your head

[Teno]

People love to complain about player numbers when it suits them to bolster their own argument but really what difference does it make if there are 1 million or 2 million or 500,000 people playing the game? Does that make the game more fun for your personally to know that there are 1.9mil other people player over only 499,999 thousand?

The number matters for the people at square tasked with making money, but doesn't really matter to players unless it drops to the threshold where the game isn't profitable at all.

It matters when it's an mmo and you'd just like to see people around. Or better yet, find groups to do content...